The Holiday
by Winter's Melancholy
Summary: A chance encounter and a set of hilarious circumstances leave two holidaymakers, absolute strangers, sharing a room with each other. Tied down by the past, and the many mysterious happenings surrounding them even as their feelings develop, will love truly blossom in this idyllic Italian getaway? Rated T for language. Inspired, in part, by the short film, 'Heartbeat Love'.


It's been a while. I've gotten rusty, but I hope you guys enjoy reading this, all the same. Many special thanks to Annabelle Rae, my new beta. She's patient, and awesome. Thanks for the help, you. (:

Disclaimer: Higuchi Tachibana owns Gakuen Alice,and all its associated characters.

Without further ado, the first chapter.

Prologue-

A girl, about the age of twenty-four, walks towards a small armchair, a video camera placed on a tripod not far away, facing her. A somber look is apparent on her features; her dark curls, tipped with green, frame her petite face even as her well-formed lips create an expression incongruent to her subtle beauty. Her eyes are distant, misty, as though she were looking at some far-off scene in her mind.

With a heavy sigh, she presses the 'record button' on the camera, and begins with a shy wave.

"Hello." Her forlorn expression carries into her words; the burden of sorrow felt with every word, every breath.

"I guess," she says, 'it's about time. Time I told you something true, for once. I guess it's time for the truth that I've tried to hide from. Twenty years ago, I fell in love with you."

A worn smile greeting her features, she begins her flashback, to those days years back, lost to time.

_It __is__ a warm, summer morning, the exact date almost lost to memory. A small, sandy-blonde haired child is seen playing in a park; he is dancing around with a carefree look in his face. The green trees, blue sky, and sounds of nature surrounding him, he prances around, kicking up leaves, running into the grass, and looking into the bushes. His mother trails not far behind from him. A smile gracing her features, she stops and eyes the playground that has just come into sight behind the bushes, and looks on with joy as she sees her son run gleefully towards it. Immediately heading for the swings, he quietly plays to himself, the playground as deserted as it usually was at that time of the day. Resting on a nearby bench, the mother quietly observes her child enjoy himself, quietly relaxing into the calming atmosphere._

_While both mother and child hardly expect anyone to come by the park this early in the morning in such a quiet part of the suburbs, a small girl is suddenly seen today, walking towards the park with __a man who__ looks like her father. The girl, small and petite in frame, looks no much older than the boy currently swinging his heart out. She looks longingly at the swings, her eyes lighting up a little as she sees someone else playing. __With a __small nudge from her father, and after some coaxing, she walks shyly up to the swings, while her father takes a seat and begins to chat with the sandy-blonde boy's mother._

_Approaching the swings slowly, she waves, a shy, small motion. The boy hardly notices, humming a cute tune from his favorite cartoon__, eyes closed and blissfully enjoying the moment. Wanting to get his attention, she opens her mouth to speak, a small smile finally gracing her features. _

_Her timid voice rings out. "M-may I join you on the swings? M-May I?"_

_The sandy-haired boy, now noticing the girl beside him, looks curiously at her. _

"_Sure," he sings, a goofy, lopsided grin adorning his __face._

_She shuffles __forward__ slowly, joining him on the free swing beside him. As she plops down on the swing, she looks curiously at the chain, and then looks shyly at the boy beside her, yet again. _

_Gesturing towards the chains, she giggles, and asks him, in that same timid voice, "__How__? How do you swing? I've never done this… before."_

_The boy just stares at her somewhat incredulously, as if she __has __just asked him an absolutely stupid question. Then, he simply shrugs, and nods to himself. Ruffling his already messy hair, he asks sheepishly, "Want me to push you?"_

_The girl simply nods, a __small smile gracing her lips__ as he walks over. He begins to push her slowly, and watches as the swing accelerates. Continuing his humming, his grin widens as he begins to hear clear peals of laughter coming from the swing's occupant. They laugh happily to themselves, and begin to warm up to each other. As the day passes, they chase themselves around the playground, running, sliding, and falling over each other, uncontained happiness radiating from them both. _

_Finally, as they both tire themselves out from their playground adventure, they both lean against each other, back to back. Just then, the girl's father signals to her, an indication that her time at the playground is growing to a close._

_At that moment, as she begins to walk off, the boy grabs her hand. The girl, startled slightly by his actions, looks back to him with a questioning glance. The boy, with that same lopsided grin as always, looks straight at the girl and asks, "What's your name?"_

_The girl, brushing back her dark curls, quietly answers, "Sumire…Shouda."_

_The boy's fac_e _lights__ up slightly at this. "I'll just call you Curly! Since your hair is… curly," he says, ruffling his hair again. "I'm Kokoro Yome! Just call me Koko, if it's too hard," he __continues__ sheepishly._

_The girl __waves her hand__, __smiles__, and __shouts,__ "Bye Koko," __running off into__ her father's waiting arms. Koko's mother, not long after,__ calls__ him away as well, the midday sun having grown much warmer than comfort would allow._

_It __turns__ out, by coincidence, that Koko and Sumire __lived barely __a street away from each other. __Sumire, or Curly, as he called her, __was__ new to the neighborhood having only moved in a few days before. Their parents, seeing the budding friendship between the two, would end up bringing them to the park, day after day, as they would__ play__ their mornings away with each other, not __caring the slightest bit about the world around them._

_Soon, they_ _end__ up spending more and more time with each other, as Koko's mother __allows__ him to go over to Sumire's house to play, and they __eventually __end up playing around __at__ her backyard, dreaming up stories of flying elephants and cows on the moon. Their friendship slowly __grows__ to the point where they __begin__ to be inseparable, attending summer carnivals and even visiting __the __circus together, as they __munch __on the same packet of popcorn and l__augh__ over things inconsequential._

_As the summer __goes__ on, the quiet Sumire __opens__ up slowly. Revealing her sheltered existence, Koko realizes that he is her first true friend. Spending most of her life in her room for reasons she __was__ hardly comfortable with stating, she had little idea of what the world outside her house was like, until she met Koko.  
_

_Popcorn, candy floss, soda. New experiences, one after another. The passage of time brought them ever closer together. She was introduced to a whole new world, a world of joy and color. However, that time would soon draw to a close._

_A few months later, in early fall, however, instead of the smiling, innocent face Koko is used to seeing, he is greeted by a sad, dejected Curly._

"_We-we're moving, Koko," she __chokes__ out, quietly hugging her best friend. "I have to move… to the city. My daddy tells me this is our last week living here."_

_Koko, hearing this, simply grinned, and replied, "Well then, since it's your last week… Let's make it a week we'll never forget!"_

_He then __proceeds__ to drag her arm and jump into a pile of gathered, fallen leaves, giggling all the way._

_Their last week, like Koko __has __promised, __is__ nothing out of the ordinary, yet, __it remained__ memorable to them both all the same. Prancing around, forgetting the imminent separation, they spent almost every moment together, glued at the hip, no different than from the heydays of their relationship. _

_Time __flew quickly__, though, and soon the last day of their time together __came__. _

_Sobbing, and hugging each other tightly, unable to part from each other, the two children just __continue__ to hold each other quietly._

_Suddenly, however Koko backs off. Looking Sumire straight in the eyes, he __presents__ her with a small charm bracelet, sheepishly saying, "My mum told me that if we were really good friends, I could give you a round thingy, and that would mean I wanna marry you. I think we're a little young now, but I'm sure we'll remain best friends forever! So, keep this bracelet as a memory of the time we spent together, alright? I'll have one too! I'll make sure I'll find you when I'm older, and then I'll marry you for sure! I'll bring you to this pretty place by the sea, and we'll love each other forever and ever!"_

"_M-m-m-marry?" __Is__ all Sumire __can__ choke out. _

"_Yeah, marry!" With a shrug, he says his final goodbyes, and is carried away by his mother._

_She too __walks__ off, making a promise that __she will __never forget this lovely, sandy-haired boy that __had__ made her __so happy and left her with beautiful memories to cherish. _

The girl finishes her recount. "That was the last time we saw each othe_r_. I'm sure you remember your promise, all those years ago. How could I forget? Your childish affirmation of that innocent puppy love lingered, but the memory of your face, your voice—they all faded. I was about to bury the past, but then, by fate, destiny, or whatever forces may be, we met again."

She sighs quietly, and then continues. "One year ago. Italy. That's where all our troubles began."


End file.
